In 1969 two young college students, Martin Brice (Gary Hershberger) and Cosmo (Jo Marr), get caught hacking into a government computer system. Cosmo is arrested and dies in prison. Martin gets away and takes off for Canada where he reinvents himself as Martin Bishop (Robert Redford).
Years later he ends up working as part of a company based in San Francisco that tests security systems for clients. Their job is to break into the system and tell the clients what they can do to plug any holes and suggest improvements to tighten their security. His co-workers are Donald Crease (Sidney Poitier), a former CIA agent, Darren “Mother” Roskow (Dan Aykroyd), a conspiracy theorist and burgler, Irwin “Whistler” Emery (David Strathairn), a blind computer and communications systems expert, and a young hacker named Carl Arbogast (River Phoenix).
One day, two guys from the NSA (National Security Agency), Dick Gordon (Timothy Busfield) and Buddy Wallace (Eddie Jones) approach Bishop. They are aware of his and his fellow team members’ pasts and want him to do a job for them. They tell him that a mathematician named Dr. Gunter Janek (Donal Logue), who works for a think tank called the Coolidge Institute got a grant from the Russians to develop a black box device, code named Setec Astronomy. They want to know what the device is for. They tell him that if he steals the device for them, they will expunge his record and pay him and his team a bunch of money. Bishop has no choice but to agree. The others go along. Bishop also enlists the help of his old girlfriend, Liz Ogilvy (Mary McDonnell).
The device turns out to be the most sophisticated code breaker ever made. When Bishop delivers the device to Gordon and Wallace they attempt to kill him. He then learns that Gunter was murdered and Bishop was set up. Bishop gets kidnapped. His kidnapper turns out to be his old college friend, Cosmo (Ben Kingsley). Cosmo, now a mob boss, is the one responsible for framing Bishop and the two NSA agents are actually fake and are working for him. Cosmo lets Bishop go, knowing that the police will be after him and the rest of the team. In order to save their lives, Bishop and his team will have to steal the device back from Cosmo and return it to the real NSA.
“Sneakers” was released in 1992 and was directed by Phil Alden Robinson. It is an American thriller caper film with comedy elements.
Although the film may be a little dated, it was still a lot of fun to watch. There is a fair amount of intensity to it and the plot moves along easily. It is always entertaining. The cast is a marvelous ensemble of seasoned actors, Oscar winners and just all-around great performers. The title may be a little misleading, but the movie is solid. It’s a nice little low-tech, high-tech tale yet full of camaraderie between the characters.
During filming, Director Robinson received a visit from men who claimed to be from the Office of Naval Intelligence. They indicated that the movie, for national security, was not allowed to make any references to “a hand-held device that can decode codes”, which is the very basis for the film. After consulting with the studio attorneys, he figured out that the “visit” was really a prank by one of the actors in the film. He didn’t know who but suspected that it was perhaps Aykroyd or Redford.
If you liked “Ocean’s Eleven”, or any of its other permutations, then you may like this.